


Hiraeth

by EntameWitchLulu



Series: Arc V Rare Pair Week 2019 [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: F/F, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 21:43:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19732351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EntameWitchLulu/pseuds/EntameWitchLulu
Summary: hiraeth (noun) (Welsh): homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, or for a home which may have never been; an intense form of longing or nostalgia, wistfulness; the grief for the lost places of your pastGrace is hard at work helping with the Heartland Restoration project when she runs into Ruri, reminiscing about Heartland before its destruction.





	Hiraeth

**Author's Note:**

> for Arc V Rare Pair Week Day 1: Nostalgic

Grace huffed, setting down her bucket for a moment. Her brow was slick with sweat — once, such an exertion would have annoyed her. Now, however, she felt a deep satisfaction at the fact that she had been working so hard. There was a sort of delightful magic about the feeling of straining muscles, wasn’t there? It was good training for Entertainment dueling, too — soon she’d be dancing about the stage the way Yuya did, and he’d surely be excited to see it. She couldn’t wait to impress him with how much she’d learned — and hopefully, he’d ask to duel her, and then she’d get to see him in dazzling action once again.

She shivered with a bright delight just thinking about it as she paused to fix her ponytail, tighting it a bit more against the nape of her neck. She hummed something tuneless, reaching for her bucket fill of small debris to be moved to a dump location, where another set of restoration workers would begin finding ways to recycle it back into the rest of the city.

Heartland had come a long way, she thought as she pulled the bucket up with both hands, shuffling along the path with it. Other Academia students were scattered about the half rebuilt ruins, some with their jackets tied around their waists, others without their jackets at all, so that the only way to tell them apart from the workers from Heartland or the other dimensions were their relative awkwardness or uncertain expressions as they scrambled over piles of debris and helped carry off materials. 

Still, in only a handful of months, the city already looked much better. Reiji-kun’s funding, and the machinery donated to the project from the City along with the work done by Academia and other volunteers, had made a sizeable dent in the restoration of the city. Soon, she might be able to see what it had looked like before the invasion — she’d only arrived after the first bombs had fallen the first time, and never seen the city in the glory that the XYZ citizens spoke of with such fondness. That is, when they felt comfortable enough to talk so openly around her. It was still a work in progress, becoming a friendly figure after having been so terrifying. Grace wasn’t sure, actually, whether to be rather pleased with herself for having been so intimidating that even those who had never faced her were nervous, or disappointed at how much work she was going to have to do to be an Entertainment Duelist like Yuya with such obstacles in her way.

Grace shaded her eyes to look up at the tall, sparkling skyscrapers — she smiled to see Clear Wing Synchro Dragon hovering near one, helping lower some materials down to the others. Either Yuya or that darling Yugo boy must be here somewhere today. 

As her eyes scan back down to her path, however, her eyes caught on a still figure up ahead. She hesitated, tilting her head to the side. Now, what was Ruri-chan doing just standing there and looking at nothing?

The younger girl bit her lip, eyes fixed on a burnt out building in front of her. As Grace approached, she didn’t seem to notice her. She was just standing there, lost in thought.

“Yoo-hoo,” Grace called, and Ruri stirred with a jump, eyes widening. “Hello there, darling. I didn’t know you’d be working today.”

Ruri turned to see her, blinking a few times before she seemed to realize who was speaking. A faint, but almost nervous smile crossed her lips, the same kind of uncertain expression many XYZ citizens put on around her. Grace and Ruri had only met a handful of times, and rarely one on one. Dennis dropped her name into many a conversation, though, so Grace was well aware of her.

“Oh,” Ruri said, running a hand back through her hair. “Hello, Tyler-san.”

“Darling, call me Grace,” Grace said cheerily. “We’re all friends now, aren’t we?”

Ruri’s smile was still a little uncomfortable, but her eyes softened. She nodded, rubbing the back of her neck. Grace closed the rest of the distance between them, dropping her bucket again with a huff.

“Well,” she said, dusting off her hands. “What brings you to this part of the project today?”

“Oh,” Ruri said, demurely casting her eyes down. “I came with my brother to help a little today over with the main camp, and I was on my way there.”

“Oh? Stopped to take in the progress?”

“Sort of.”

Her eyes wandered over to the burnt out building again, and this time, Grace took a look at it. It wasn’t much, not at all like the grand skyscrapers she’d watched get put back together a piece at a time. This was a one-story building, saggy and stained dark from soot. The windows had been blown out, and there was an old sign hanging on one end, so broken that Grace couldn’t read the title, even if she’d been more skilled at reading kanji.

“What was this place?” she asked.

She glanced down at Ruri to see her duck her head again, almost as though embarrassed.

“It used to be a burger place,” she said. “We...I mean, my brother, and Sayaka and Allen and Yuto and I...we used to come here all the time.”

She bit her lip, and a sad, faraway look glazed over her eyes. Grace felt her own smile beginning to slip, as she took a second look at the building again.

She tried to imagine what it might look like — a “burger place.” Perhaps the walls would have been white instead of soot-stained, and the sign would have been neon lights. But inside? She couldn’t imagine it.

“We used to stop by and share a basket of fries. Yuto and Shun would argue over new dueling techniques. Kaito would join them during the times he’d come with us, though he was so busy he often had to skip on us, and Shun would complain about it. I’d take a lot of pictures of them and put filters on them when they weren’t looking, and send them to Sayaka. She’d look at them under the table and try not to laugh so that they wouldn’t notice.”

Ruri stopped suddenly, blushing.

“I’m sorry,” she said. She rubbed at her eyes, and Grace realized that perhaps she was about to cry. “I’m rambling. You’re probably busy.”

Grace reached for Ruri and put an arm around her shoulders. Ruri’s eyes widened with surprise when Grace hugged her.

“Keep going,” Grace said, without letting go of her. “I want to hear more about it.”

Ruri looked up at her, eyes wide with surprise. Her lips parted. Then she looked down — she didn’t try to pull out of Grace’s grip, and Grace didn’t feel like letting go. The words tumbled from her lips like drops of rain.

“Allen always wanted us to try doing the big burger challenge. He was always trying to convince Shun or Yuto or Kaito to take him up on it, but they always said no way, that was too much burger. Allen wouldn’t do it if no one else was going to, so he would mope and get a chocolate shake instead. Sometimes Kaito would make us push the fries out of the way so that they could spread all their cards out to prove that he was right on a technicality they were arguing. I’d make faces at Sayaka, and at Yuto when he started to get bored of the argument even when Shun and Kaito wouldn’t give it up, and we’d try not to burst out laughing because Shun and Kaito would get annoyed and think we were making fun of them.”

Ruri’s bottom lip trembled, but despite that, she didn’t cry. When she finally trailed off, Grace felt a peculiar ache in her chest. Her eyes were fixed on the building, trying to imagine it. Trying to imagine visiting a place on the way home from school. Getting food with friends and talking over a table. She tried to remember what it might feel like, to look at the hollow shell of a building, and have memories attached to it.

“Thank you,” Ruri said softly, pulling herself out of Grace’s grip. Grace didn’t try to hold onto her, while Ruri drew back and wiped at the corners of her eyes. Her smile looked more vibrant this time, when she looked up and smiled. “It’s...it’s nice to talk about it.”

Grace just kept staring at the building, squinting as though if she stared hard enough, it might come back to life. As though the city might blossom before her, full of people and memories. Not just...not just a puzzle to put back together, not a distant intellectual exercise. But a real place. With people. With...life.

It seemed so impossible. She couldn’t put words to it. But there was this empty ache in her stomach, something like — like hunger. A hunger to know, to put color to the gray around her, to fill herself with memories that weren’t hers.

“If you ever have time, Ruri-chan,” she asked, still staring at the shell before her. “Would you tell me more stories of living in this city?”

She turned her eyes to Ruri, to find Ruri looking at her curiously. Her bangs slid over one eye when she tilted her head.

“Is...is something wrong?” she asked. “You look sick.”

Grace frowned and put a hand to her own forehead. She didn’t feel sick — just...hungry. Hungry to know. To understand.

Ruri reached out — tentatively at first, and then more confidently, laying her hand on Grace’s elbow. 

“I’ve never been to a... ‘burger place’,” Grace said. “I hardly know how to imagine it. Or anything in this city. I heard such stories — of lights, and games, and fun places. But I can’t picture any of it.”

Ruri slides her hand down to squeeze Grace’s, tilting her head.

“You mean...have you never been to anything like it? You’ve never gone anywhere with your friends?”

Grace smiled at Ruri, letting out a soft laugh.

“Oh, darling. You must realize by now. Academia was not a place where we made friends — or where we went places with others, other than to the battlefield.”

Ruri shivered slightly at the reminder, but she did not release Grace’s hand.

“But what about before? Not even before you went to Academia?”

Grace felt her eyes blur, as she let her mind wander backwards. Before? Before Academia? Where was she, before?

“I was sent to the school with my sister when I was only eight years old,” she said. “I don’t recall if we ever went home. If we had breaks. I don’t...”

Her words trailed from her tongue, disappearing into the air. A faint shake came to her hands, and she looked down at her free palm with surprise. Before, she tried to think. What was  _ before _ Academia?

She remembered hands tight against her face, her sister holding her tightly so that she couldn’t look away, her eyes hard as flint even as a child, forcing Grace not to drop her gaze away.

_ “We are Academia,” _ she’d said, shaking Grace slightly.  _ “There is no before. We came from here. We don’t come from anywhere else. Say it. Say that we don’t have anything else.” _

She remembered, faintly, the feeling of bruises littering her skin beneath her shirt, and a dull pain she can’t remember the beginning or end of. She remembered nodding.

_ “We’re from Academia,” _ she’d parroted.  _ “We’re not from anywhere else.” _

Somehow, she couldn’t roll her memory back farther than that. Like there was a block. As though she were an empty girl, with nothing that connected her to any world.

She didn’t realize that a tear had escaped her until Ruri was gently wiping it away. Grace forced a smile, bright and cheerful and excitable, just like she was supposed to be.

“Oh dear,” she said. “It seems I can’t remember anything at all. How silly!”

Ruri didn’t smile back at Grace’s joke though. She only looked sad, and squeezed Grace’s hand.

“Tell you what,” she said. “When this burger place is put back together, you can come with me. We’ll make some more memories.”

Grace hesitated. She looked down at this girl, who should probably be more afraid, or at least, more angry with her, for all she had done. But all she saw was a wide open kindness, and...it soothed that aching hole in her chest. She smiled, and twined her fingers into Ruri’s.

“I think,” she said, “that I would like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> i have Thoughts about Grace and Gloria's backstory but I'm not sharing them yet lol. Have just this for now.


End file.
